{friday cocktail: bellini bar}

Last night while prepping for the "breakfast for dinner" party we are hosting this weekend, we tried out a few Bellini recipes to use in a make your own Bellini Bar that we are planning on setting up.   After searching around for some simple recipes that have a little twist on the classic Bellini, we decided to try out a Rosemary Peach Bellini and a Strawberry Balsamic Bellini.  Both cocktails were great- it is hard to go wrong with pureed fruit and Prosecco.  Although, we are still trying to perfect these recipes before the party and add a little bit more flavor to the fruit purees.   I will be back next week with more details on the Bellini Bar set up.  For more info on setting on a Bellini bar- check out this great and simple post.

 

Cheers & a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dear friend Kay!

{friday cocktail: mandarin honey sparkler}

I am always on the hunt for new champagne cocktail recipes and while nothing can beat the original, this week's recipe is definitely one of my new favorites.  Always Order Dessert just featured this recipe for gin and honey soaked mandarins for use in cocktails and I figured this would be the perfect cocktail to greet our guests with at an upcoming dinner party we are hosting this weekend.   The original recipe calls for mandarin sections canned in water not light syrup, but since my local store had no less than SIX different canned options in light syrup and not one option in water I figured my chances of finding the correct version elsewhere was going to be slim.  While the resulting cocktail is sweet, it is definitely not overpowering so I would say you are fine to substitute the mandarins in light syrup so long as you give them a good rinse in cold water after draining the syrup. 

 

The original recipe also suggested trying this with raspberries, which I thought could lend itself perfectly to some sort of muddled cocktail (perhaps this will be next week's recipe). Oh and also just so you know- these soaked mandarins are like candy when eaten alone using a fork to fish them out of the container- just saying.

First whip up a batch of the soaked mandarins at least 24 hours ahead of

 time and then follow this recipe:

Cheers!